Free Republic

A new one from CNS featuring Kent Conrad, who’ll be spared a “worst person in the world” award on Olbermann’s show for this bit o’ demagoguery solely by virtue of his party affiliation. Consider this a sequel to Lindsey Graham’s grilling of Holder last week: In both cases, we’ve got a Democrat who’s (a) absolutely confident that civilian trials are the way to go and (b) plainly unprepared to address the rather significant constitutional implications of his preference. The search warrant question here is bait but the underlying point isn’t: FrumForum interviewed former FBI and CIA agents to get their...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- CIA Director Leon Panetta arrived in Pakistan Friday to discuss the issue of the location of the leadership of the Taliban with security officials. Panetta was to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and top military and intelligence officials, Pakistan's The National newspaper reported. He is expected to discuss issues related to the leadership of the Taliban believed to be hiding in the tribal border regions along the Afghan border. Pakistani officials denied claims the leadership is in the area, the report said.

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News. It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said. One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts. CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis...

The CIA may have misled Congress at least five times since 2001, two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday. Intelligence subcommittee Chairwomen Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are leading an investigation into what they described as a practice of incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings, which arose in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s June 24 admission that intelligence officials failed to notify Congress about a top-secret program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders.

Maintaining his stature as one of the most forceful defenders of the Bush Administration's defense policies former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Obama of committing "libel" against CIA interrorgators on Wednesday. Mr. Cheney’s criticized the Obama White House in a wide-ranging address on foreign policy matters for abandoning commitments to allies in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of the Russians, sacrificing American intelligence officials to satisfy the political left and "dithering" on taking action in Afghanistan, among other things. The speech, delivered to the Center for Security Policy, comes as the White House considers U.S. Commander of...

A U.S. federal judge has ruled that hundreds of documents detailing the Central Intelligence Agency's now-shuttered overseas secret detention program of suspected terrorists, including extreme interrogation methods, may be kept secret. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Wednesday refused to release documents describing Central Intelligence Agency terror interrogations, and the names of detainees or CIA contractors involved in the secret rendition program. He said he would defer to the CIA's judgment on the need to keep the papers secret in order to protect intelligence methods and sources. The American Civil Liberties Union had asked for the release of 580...

There comes a time when big things should be considered rather than tinkering at the edges. It is certainly what the Left – as embodied in the Obama administration – thinks. It is certainly worth considering by those of us on the Right. So let’s look at the CIA; an agency that has – at the highest levels – individuals who pursue their own foreign policy. That may be forgivable if the result is improved intelligence and improved safety for the US. Unfortunately, the list of intelligence and judgment failures is piling up to such an extent that it now...

Note: The following text is a quote: CIA Opens Center on Climate Change and National Security September 25, 2009 The Central Intelligence Agency is launching The Center on Climate Change and National Security as the focal point for its work on the subject. The Center is a small unit led by senior specialists from the Directorate of Intelligence and the Directorate of Science and Technology. Its charter is not the science of climate change, but the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources. The Center will provide support...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama says he has no plans to ask the Justice Department to end its criminal investigation into the harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists during the Bush administration. Seven former CIA directors have asked the president to do just that. In a letter to Obama on Friday, they warned that the probe could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to fight terrorism. Obama tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that he appreciates that the former CIA chiefs are wanting "to look after an institution that they helped to build." Obama says he wants...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama says he has no plans to ask the Justice Department to end its criminal investigation into the harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists during the Bush administration. Seven former CIA directors have asked the president to do just that. In a letter to Obama on Friday, they warned that the probe could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to fight terrorism. Obama tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that he appreciates that the former CIA chiefs are wanting "to look after an institution that they helped to build."

Tom Maguire, citing the Washington Post, reports that AG Eric Holder seems to be winding down the much ballyhooed and widely criticized decision to investigate the CIA interrogators: The WaPo reports that, having finished with the grandstanding and puffery, Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into the already-investigated detainee abuse cases is narrowing and winding down. Beyond the obvious problems - in addition to demoralizing the CIA they are investigating the foot soldiers, not the generals who ordered the policy - it turns out that technicalities of law, jurisdiction and evidence make prosecutions and convictions difficult.  That is hardly a surprise to...

C.I.A. Chiefs Ask Obama to Stop Abuse Inquiry WASHINGTON — Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it “will seriously damage” the nation’s ability to protect itself. In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it...

The Justice Department investigation into CIA torture allegations may have already jeopardized American intelligence capabilities, seven former CIA directors told President Obama have claimed. In a letter, the spy chiefs urge him to reverse Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to re-review case files of a dozen interrogations for possible criminal prosecution. Letter to President Obama from Former DCIs and DCIAs.

"Elections have their consequences." In countries without the democratic tradition of America, those consequences may include putting the former leaders in jail, or worse. But that has never been the tradition in the US. The history of America has been that those consequences have been political, a change in policy, appointment of advisers who were hated by the old regime, etc. But has not been the Obama way. Since his election, Obama and his team have attempted to appease their political left by publicly denouncing the Bush Administration's national security policies which kept us safe, even as they claimed Obama...

WASHINGTON — Seven former CIA directors are asking President Barack Obama to quash Attorney GeneralEric Holder's investigation into harsh CIA interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration. The request came in a letter Friday from CIA directors who served both Democratic and Republican presidents, including three who served former President George W. Bush. Holder announced in August that he was appointing an independent counsel to investigate incidents of potential abuse that were reported by the CIA inspector general to the Justice Department.

Seven former heads of the CIA wrote President Obama on Friday to ask him to end an investigation launched by former Attorney General Eric Holder into the actions of CIA interrogators who used "enhanced" techniques to question terror detainees.

President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage. He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered - a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.

Former CIA counterterrorism expert Kent Clizbe tells Newsmax it's "indisputable" that the Obama administration's actions regarding intelligence agents have undermined the global war on terror. Clizbe was a member of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, and returned to the CIA after 9/11 to serve in multiple counterterrorism deployments. He recently wrote an opinion piece for Newsmax headlined "Obama and Holder 'At War' With Agency." Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella noted that President Barack Obama has allowed Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate CIA personnel involved in the interrogation of terrorist detainees, and has taken future interrogations away...

Note: The following text is a quote: Message from the Director: September 11th Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on September 11th September 10, 2009 Tomorrow, our nation as a whole will remember those lost to us eight years ago. For the men and women of the CIA, September 11th is a constant, powerful incentive in the war against al-Qa’ida and its violent sympathizers. Our Agency is at the center of that fight. We have no higher priority or greater focus. Alone, and with partners in this country and overseas, the CIA has...

CIA Director Leon Panetta addressed agency staff in an e-mail today marking the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks tomorrow. With the CIA facing scrutiny over Bush-era torture of detainees and questions about how it should share responsibilities with the FBI and other federal agencies, Panetta used the opportunity to try to boost morale and rally employees. Panetta's full message is included below: Message from the Director: September 11th Tomorrow, our nation as a whole will remember those lost to us eight years ago. For the men and women of the CIA, September 11th is a constant, powerful incentive in...

Besieged by leaks of several closely held secrets, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to examine what it regards as the criminal disclosure of a secret program to kill foreign terrorist leaders abroad, The Washington Times has learned. Two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said the leak investigation involved a program that CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told Congress about in June and that surfaced in news reports just a month later. The vice chairman of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence declined...

WASHINGTON -- It’s no surprise that former Vice President Dick Cheney is opposed to the Justice Department’s decision to investigate the torture of prisoners during the Bush-Cheney administration. After all, Cheney has acknowledged that he was "aware" of waterboarding (simulated drowning) of detainees to get them to talk. It’s fair speculation that the orders for this method of torture came from on high. And in the Bush-Cheney administration, no one was higher than the vice president. Cheney has blasted Attorney General Eric Holder’s appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate abuse of prisoners. The duty fell to veteran Connecticut lawyer...

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to make public hundreds of pages of internal documents about the agency’s defunct detention and interrogation program, saying such disclosures would jeopardize national security by revealing classified intelligence sources and operations. The C.I.A.’s argument to withhold the material, laid out Monday in a declaration to a federal court in New York, comes a week after the Obama administration declassified documents about abuses in the C.I.A.’s secret overseas prisons and the Justice Department began investigating the actions of C.I.A. operatives.

In the early days and weeks after September 11, 2001, a small cadre of men (and a few women) with vast amounts of intelligence experience reported to the Langley, Virginia headquarters of the CIA. These unsung heroes were then dispatched across the globe to run operations against the Al-Qaeda conspirators who leveled the World Trade Center and struck the nerve center of the US military. The FBI, a domestic law enforcement agency, did not have the ability or skills needed to track down and strike the attackers overseas. The Pentagon, with F22s, nuclear aircraft carriers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and battalions...

Poor Leon Panetta. It's hard not to feel bad for the guy. If the Obama administration is like one big, elaborate stage production of "Chicago," Panetta is playing invisible Amos Hart - "Mr. Cellophane" - to sheer, translucent, forgettable perfection. In less than a year, Panetta's CIA has been reduced to irrelevance and Panetta himself has either been ignored or emasculated by the very folks who were supposed to be his biggest supporters. For taking on a thankless job that typically only gets attention when there's a massive failure, this is the thanks he gets? When he was asked by...

When he served as deputy attorney general, now Attorney General Eric Holder gave a "neutral leaning positive" recommendation that led to President Bill Clinton's pardoning of gazillionaire fugitive Marc Rich, who was on the lam in Switzerland hiding from federal charges of fraud, evading more than $48 million in taxes, racketeering and trading oil with Iran in violation of a U.S. embargo. Holder also had a role in the 1999 Clinton pardons of 16 Puerto Rico independence terrorists -- members of the bomb-happy FALN or the splinter group Los Macheteros -- who had been convicted on such charges as bank...

"I believe the explanation lies in the Obama administration’s fondness for transnationalism, a doctrine of post-sovereign globalism in which America is seen as owing its principal allegiance to the international legal order rather than to our own Constitution and national interests. "Recall that the president chose to install former Yale Law School dean Harold Koh as his State Department’s legal adviser. Koh is the country’s leading proponent of transnationalism. He is now a major player in the administration’s deliberations over international law and cooperation. Naturally, membership in the International Criminal Court, which the United States has resisted joining, is high...

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to ask a special prosecutor to investigate for possible criminal prosecution CIA operatives who interrogated terrorists in overseas locations is the latest and most egregious instance of political gamesmanship by Holder, who strode into office promising to remove the taint of politicization from the Justice Department. Holder's announcement brought a storm of criticism from senators, former CIA director Michael Hayden, former vice president Dick Cheney, and veteran Justice Department attorneys. CIA employees, already reeling from congressional attacks, were understandably mystified by Holder's words assuring them of his "respect and gratitude" and puzzled as to how...

Last April Nancy Pelosi sparked a furor when she claimed that the CIA was always lying to Congress. She also claimed that she was briefed by Bush administration officials on the legal justification for using water boarding, but they never told her the technique was actually being used. It was Nancy Pelosi version of "I tried it but I never inhaled." "In that or any other briefing we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel...

AUGUST 28, 2009 The Fall Guy CIA Director Leon Panetta getting sacked by his own team. By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL In the game of political football that is today national security, spare a thought for CIA Director Leon Panetta. Quarterbacking is hard enough without getting sacked by your own team. President Barack Obama fought hard for the former California congressman during his uncertain February confirmation fight. That's about the last thing the president has done for his spy chief. Quite the opposite: If the latest flap over CIA interrogations shows anything, it's that Mr. Panetta has officially become the president's...

WASHINGTON — The US Central Intelligence Agency will pay the legal fees of any officers involved in a government probe of alleged abusive interrogation techniques, the Washington Post said Friday. CIA Director Leon "Panetta will do everything he can to ensure that anyone who needs legal representation has it, whether they have liability insurance or not," a senior intelligence official was quoted as saying. "It's a question of fairness. People who did tough jobs for the country won't be left by the side of the road." Some, but not all, CIA agents working on controversial assignments take out personal liability...

In the game of political football that is today national security, spare a thought for CIA Director Leon Panetta. Quarterbacking is hard enough without getting sacked by your own team. President Barack Obama fought hard for the former California congressman during his uncertain February confirmation fight. That's about the last thing the president has done for his spy chief. Quite the opposite: If the latest flap over CIA interrogations shows anything, it's that Mr. Panetta has officially become the president's designated fall guy. The title has been months in the making. Mr. Obama is contending with an angry left that's...

In an at-times-disjointed interview (no fault of his), Pat Caddell gets to the nub of the Justice Department conundrum: is Eric Holder running the administration, or is the president disingenuous when he denies responsibility for reactivating the investigation of CIA detainee-interrogation cases? Caddell goes after both Holder’s handling of the Black Panther case (dismissing a default judgment in an obvious case of physical intimidation of voters) and the naming of a special prosecutor to look at alleged detainee abuse—a move directly contrary to the president’s plea to look forward, not backward. Caddell favors the “rogue attorney general” theory. Andy McCarthy...

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Impact" segment tonight: controversy still raging over Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged CIA abuses in the interrogations of about a dozen terror suspects. ABC News is reporting that CIA chief Leon Panetta confronted some high-level White House people and even used obscenities in the heated discussion. Joining us now from ABC News headquarters in New York, the chief investigative reporter for that outfit, Brian Ross. So we're hearing it was Rahm Emanuel that Leon Panetta went toe to toe with. Is that what you're hearing? BRIAN...

I’m hearing a very credible rumor that Leon Panetta has dispatched a resignation letter to Barack Obama on vacation. Panetta is said to be extremely angry about the possible prosecution of CIA officers doing their job and has decided to resign in protest. The rumor is unconfirmed, but given the sourcing I think it is safe to treat it credibly.

Our friends at Restate are hearing credible rumors that Leon Panetta is quitting over the proposed procecution of CIA operatives. If this is true, kudos to Leon...

On Monday the Obama administration released a 2004 CIA inspector general's report on the agency's detention and interrogation program. Yesterday, the New York Times reported some gruesome abuses on its front page, above the fold: "Excessive physical force was routinely used, resulting in broken bones, shattered teeth, concussions, and dozens of other serious injuries over a period of less than two years, a federal investigation has found. . . . [D]espite rules allowing force only as a last resort. 'Staff at the facilities routinely used uncontrolled, unsafe applications of force, departing from generally accepted standards,' said the report." Actually, these...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but pledges to closely monitor their treatment to ensure that they are not tortured, administration officials said Monday. Human rights advocates condemned the decision, saying that continuing the practice, known as rendition, would still allow the transfer of prisoners to countries with a history of torture. They said that promises from other countries of humane treatment, called “diplomatic assurances,” were no protection against abuse. “It is extremely disappointing that the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration practice...

I don’t often quote James Carville, but on the decision to name a special prosecutor to look at criminal charges against CIA operatives who utilized enhanced-interrogation techniques, he is certainly worth hearing. His main concern is the political blowback that may ensue from the decision to go after the CIA: Well, the first thing is this is terrible politics for the Obama administration and Democrats. The country—having said that, people go out and give speeches about we’re a nation of laws and somebody in the justice department actually believes that and they believe they’re warranted to open a preliminary investigation...

Well, it looks like President Obama has finally decided to take a side in the "Who's it gonna be boy, us or them?" contest of wills between Leon Panetta's Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the executive (and parts of the Democratic-dominated legislative) branch. Yesterday's decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged abuses of captured Al Qaeda leaders by CIA interrogators seems to completely contradict President Obama's earlier reassurances of no action to be taken against those CIA employees. At the time, it was clear that polls showed the public had...

There is now just one group of people exempt from President Obama's worldwide ban on torture: the men and women of the CIA. By authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether a full criminal investigation of CIA employees and contractors is warranted for the manner in which they interrogated captured terrorists, the President has thrown his power and support behind those far-left ideologues --  in Congress and elsewhere -- who believe that the CIA is a bigger threat to our country than al Qaeda. I know the men and women of the CIA --...

A new "elite interrogation unit", that President Barack Obama has appointed to quiz terrorism detainees, will apparently be run by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, rather than the Central Intelligence Agency. If the report from anonymous sources proves accurate, the former NBC "Today" hostess, would head up the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, under the president's National Security Council. Detainee-questioning sessions would be filmed before a live studio audience in Burbank, California. "The president wants to ensure that these folks receive all the protections the U.S. Constitution affords other citizens," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. "We can't...

A "furious" Rep. Peter King, the hawkish, maverick Long Island Republican, blasted a "disgraceful" Eric Holder for opening an investigation of CIA interrogators and chided his own party for what he described as a weak response to the move in an interview just now with POLITICO. "It’s bulls***. It’s disgraceful. You wonder which side they’re on," he said of the attorney general's move, which he described as a "declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense." "It’s a total breach of faith, and either the president is intentionally caving to the left wing of his party or he’s...

President Obama has decreed that from now on terrorists, after their interrogation, are to be released and given a "cash for klunkers" trade in so they can drive home. Below is a picture of the U.S. Navy complying with Obama's new order. This would be a good idea.

In December 1917 Bolshevik Russian leaders, including one of the founders of Socialist thuggery Vladimir Lenin, established the Cheka—Russia’s first political secret police. With almost unlimited power, the Cheka implemented “campaigns of terror” against the wealthy, land owners and those who opposed Lenin and Bolshevism. !n 1922, once most of Russia’s opposition to their new absolute rulers had lessened, the Cheka was disbanded. However, under the singularly oppressive Josef Stalin, Cheka was reinstated and ultimately renamed “The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs” (NKVD) and what would be known as Stalin’s “Great Terror of the 1930s began. The NKVD was used...

Former vice president, top Republican senators criticize decision to begin a new criminal probe of past interrogation tactics. Cheney said, "the people involved deserve our gratitude."WASHINGTON -- Top Republican senators said on Monday they were troubled by Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to begin a new criminal probe of past interrogation tactics used by the CIA during President George W. Bush's war on terror, and expressed concern it could hamper U.S. intelligence efforts. A newly declassified version of a CIA report revealed Monday that CIA interrogators once allegedly threatened to kill the Sept. 11 attack mastermind's children and suggested another...

If the left wing of the left wing of the left wing in American life doesn't control most of the Obama farmstead's best and richest acreage, it could be time for new spectacles -- since things surely look that way. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to go after the CIA has all the earmarks of policy designed to make left-wing hearts palpitate. What other purpose could it possibly serve? Not that of national security or common sense. I have written deliberately "go after the CIA," notwithstanding the demurral of newly appointed special prosecutor John Durham, which concerns the supposedly "preliminary"...

You heard about AG Eric Holder appointing a special prosecutor to investigate CIA Interrogators, but did you miss this quiet little story yesterday? Team Obama released another terrorist from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They simply let him go. Even offered him a ride back to Afghanistan! They sent him back to his family near the place where he attacked U.S. Soldiers! Here are some details from Fox News: "the administration released Mohammed Jawad to his home in Afghanistan. Jawad had been accused of throwing a grenade in 2002 that injured two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul....

President Barack Obama has decided to set up a new, elite terrorist interrogation team, but will limit the techniques it can employ to those already approved for military use — a restriction sure to chafe some who believe tougher tactics should be allowed against America’s most determined adversaries. The announcement comes on the same day that the Justice Department is expected to release a CIA Inspector General report from 2004 that details some of the most extreme interrogation techniques used under the Bush administration, including the use of a mock execution and a power drill to intimidate Al Qaeda operatives....

In naming a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA's use of harsh interrogation tactics, the Obama administration has plunged into just the kind of controversy it said it wanted to avoid -- a polarizing, backward-looking fight over issues far removed from the president's top priorities. At a time when healthcare and other signature initiatives are in trouble on Capitol Hill and President Obama's approval ratings are slipping, he now faces the prospect of a long, distracting probe into policies of the Bush administration -- policies Obama has already denounced. And the furor is likely to be all the sharper because...